My mom used to sew quite a bit. Now she has dementia. I'm not sure I want her to try to use her sewing machine at this point, but she can still hand sew and I'm looking for inspiration for some simple projects that she could do with a caregiver. Any ideas?

My sis-in-law's mother was very crafty. Doing crafts became more difficult for her when dementia set in.

One of the projects that she continued to enjoy was tying fleece blankets. Someone else would prepare the fleece by cutting the fringe, and Mom would knot the fringe. Doesn't require needles or scissors if the fleece is prepared beforehand.

The Linus Project accepts these fleece blankets, but check your local Linus chapter to be sure. Linus Project web sites usually include free patterns for the types of blankets that they accept. You may find some ideas there, too.

How about easy appliqués that can be hand stitched ? There's a Craftsy course given by N. Chanin with some great projects done by sewers . I think her stencil
Designs can be downloaded for free from her site. She could put them on simple
T- shirts,tote bags, cover-ups.

From just 2 small/medium/large squares together to strips to sashing or not, etc.

I've helped put these projects together for ladies. Some needed threaded needles at hand, others did the threading for others (!), some ladies would be handed one needle at a time and perhaps a seam started for them, but a quilting bee would be going.

I've always thought this is one of the ways that women both manage and enjoy their time. Men just don't have these interests!

It's wonderful for you to be looking for things for your mom, allorache, and it looks like some fun ideas here. -- Edited on 4/16/13 10:22 AM --

Thanks everyone for the great suggestions. I'm going to start her with just a rectangle of fleece, which I've cut for her, and see if she will just blanket stitch to finish the edges for Project Linus. She liked the idea of helping kids and is familiar with the blanket stitch. If that goes well we may branch out to the no-sew fleece blankets or some of these other lovely ideas.

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